More 2003 IA Summit - Trip Reports
Stacy Surla shares her thoughts on the IA Summit. Comment to ssurla@aspensys.com.

Content Modeling and Analysis for EastEnders
Celia Romaniuk, BBCi

The popular BBC soap opera "EastEnders" has an accompanying web site, frequented by an enthusiastic community of viewers who e-mail hundreds of questions and comments about the show every day. A rich, interactive delivery of this information through the website would be a valuable addition to the site. Furthermore, EastEnders has been running for many years, and writers and people who answer viewer questions have no real tools to keep track of the who, why, and when of the show's episodes.

Modeling the System

An extensive bottom-up content modeling and analysis of the EastEnder program was undertaken. The object model focused on the core elements of importance for a soap opera, which are people's familial relationships with one another, as expressed through key events. The purpose of the project was to improve content on the site; provide dynamic information that matched the interest level of site visitors on characters, their relationships, and events; and reduce the workload of the web site production team, whose existing site production system is largely manual.

Use of RDF

The project used the Resource Description Framework (RDF) to describe objects and their relationships (or classes and their properties). RDF, developed by the W3C, is an XML application that allows Web resources (i.e. any object with a URL as its address) to be described in a machine-understandable fashion. This framework supports the interoperability of metadata. Using RDF, a resource is described through a collection of properties called an RDF Description. Each property has a Property Type and Value. The BBCi Eastenders model uses the RDF FOAF (Friend of a Friend) vocabulary to describe classes and properties. RDF can be used for applications such as resource description, site maps, content ratings, electronic commerce, collaborative services, privacy preferences - and, clearly, the depiction of soap operas.

Using these tools, a new application was created and termed SUDS (self-referentially short for "SUDS is Used to Describe Soaps"). SUDS has a Subject/Predicate/Object structure. It has only 8 classes (possible subjects/objects), including Character, Family, Location, Event, Programme.

Summary Points

Interesting aspects of the EastEnders modeling project include the following:

• It presents a case study in the application of RDF, which is very helpful in understanding how to apply the concepts of an important protocol that is gaining widespread use.

• It shows how a complex and dynamic collection of information can be modeled in a surprisingly manageable way. For instance:
  • The structure of a soap opera can be usefully described as people's family relationships, as expressed through events.

  • The definition of "event" can be usefully confined to "key events," rather than "everything that happened." For example, many episodes of EastEnders contain no events - and this is okay.

  • A very small set of objects is sufficient to handle the requirements. Character and Location could describe almost anything. (For instance, "Greta" [hits] "John" "In the Restaurant" is one; "JR" [reveals he is the real father of] "Linda Mae" "At the Track" is another.)

Beyond Soaps

Applications outside the soap opera world beg to suggest themselves. This is yet another session that deserves to be a topic of brainstorming and discussion. See the PowerPoint presentation.